Ascension
by VeryImpressive
Summary: Rachel McKenzie, undercover adult-agent for the Kids Next Door, daughter, woman, is unsatisfied with her life – with war brewing in the Galaxy and with the the reappearance of a handsome ghost of her past – will a little spice be added to it?
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Ascension**

**Parings: Chad Dickson/Rachel McKenzie**

**Warnings: A little lemon later on, suggested sexual acts, explicit sexual acts, death, cursing.**

**Summary: Rachel McKenzie, undercover adult-agent for the Kids Next Door, daughter and woman, is unsatisfied with her life. With war brewing in the Galaxy and with the the reappearance of a handsome ghost of her past – will a little spice finally be added to it?**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

Rachel McKenzie was bored.

At first, the choice to come home for her twenty-third birthday party was one that was made out of purse sense of obligation and self-preservation. If she hadn't come home, her mother would never let her forget about it until the very day that she died and her father, while he might not have reminded her of it, would still look at her with disappointment. Sitting there in the ballroom, amid all of her parent's boring and snobby friends, not to mention their boring and snobby children, she was almost tempted to leave, almost. The thrashing that she would receive from her parents would nearly be worth it if she didn't have to hear another story about how little Patrick or Caroline did at their term at school. If she had to hear it one more time, she swore that she was going to vomit all over the ground. The same thing would probably happen if she had to sit through her parents praising her with false platitudes or simply praising her to one-up whoever they were trading barbs with.

Sipping her champagne and casting an entirely bored gaze upon the room, she found down the urge to chafe and twitch at the designer gown that her mother had forced upon her. It wasn't as if she wasn't used to gatherings like this, she'd been forced to attend them since she was a small child and she'd just spent the last four years at Harvard University, the epitome of snobbery and gathering point for a lot of the offspring of the elites of the world. However, she was convinced that no matter how much exposure she had to the pageantry that often accompanied the elitism – she would never like it, no matter how much her parents tried to force her to. She was a simple girl, she preferred to blend into the background, observe her surroundings and calculate – perhaps that was a part of her espionage training, perhaps that was a part of her that she never liked to acknowledge, the calculating mentality that she had inherited from her mother, either way, it's what she did.

Good lord she missed the Kids Next Door, she missed being in the loop.

It was no coincidence that she had applied to Harvard, it certainly wasn't because of her parents, the fact that her father was a legacy certainly helped her along in those goals, but she still – she had her choice, she wouldn't have gone. When she graduated from High School, she had been instructed by Numbuh Infinity to begin keeping tabs on the staff of Harvard University – apparently there were rumors of a secret project amongst the staff to develop something of a portable Delightfulization device. Commissioned by certain wealthy benefactors, namely Father, the device would have theoretically removed the need for the chamber and would streamline the process. Father had planned on taking the device, having it mass-produced and putting it up for sale, along with guides on controlling unruly children. Her recon had allowed the Kids Next Door to infiltrate the lab and destroy the device, as well as destroy all of the notes and work that was complied with it.

That had been two months ago – four years of work, of carefully compiling all of the information and sending it back to the Numbuh Infinity had resulted in the quick and very concise destruction of the device.

Now she didn't know what to do – she was still awaiting orders from Numbuh Infinity and she hoped to god that it didn't involve her going back to that place.

She missed Cleveland, she missed its simplicity and the relief that it brought her. She missed her childhood friends and even though most of them were decommissioned and lost to the masses, it still didn't stop her from missing them.

"Pumpkin," Her father's voice drew her attention away from her dry observations of the room and when she looked back to him, she couldn't help but frown deeply at who was following him. No matter how many times she saw them, it'd always be strange to see Harris and Rebecca Dickson outside of their alter-egos. Mega-Mom and Destructo-Dad were one of the few villains that she still held a grudge against – being stupefied and nearly killed had gotten on her last nerves and she never really forgot it. Allowing herself the briefest of moments to remember and indulge in the gut instinct that the very sight of them inspired in her as a child, she quickly quashed it and plastered a false smile on her face, "Remember the Dicksons?"

She had been away from the loop for a very long time and thus she wasn't as active on the latest moves that the villains, other than Father, had been making, so she wasn't sure if the Dicksons were still active.

But the malicious glint in both of their eyes gave an interesting answer, it was clear that they hadn't forgotten her.

Good.

She hadn't forgotten them either.

"Well darling," Her mother prodded her not-so subtly. "Don't be rude, say hello."

"Mr. Dickson, Mrs. Dickson," Rachel nodded to them slightly and her face morphed into a mask of faux-warmth and kindness that she was sure she could have only inherited from her mother. "It's been quite some time, how are you?"

"Very well, thank you for asking," The glint in Destructo-Dad's eyes grew. "I'm enjoying retirement, being able to focus more on my hobbies."

"I hope those hobbies aren't too destructive?" The right corner of her mouth quirked up slightly.

If her parents caught her peculiar choice of words, they didn't say anything and she was grateful for that. Her two innocent and somewhat vapid parents were safely unware of what was happening right in front of them. If they had known that they were witnessing of the slight rebirth of a grudge that was twelve years in the making, they might have made a scene and they could have put themselves in danger if they did that. She didn't worry about the Dicksons spilling their secrets, her parents would probably not enjoy learning that they tried to kill her at one point and it would lead to their social destruction. That was a benefit of having the most powerful parents in town, social climbers like the Dicksons usually bowed to them.

"Of course not dear," Mrs. Dickson replied. "Not since our son moved back home anyway."

That bit of information was utterly delicious – and she had to force herself to forestall her glee at the news and relish it later.

"And how is Chad doing?" Rachel asked gently.

Chad fucking Dickson.

The vaunted, two parts hated and two parts vindicated Numbuh 274.

Even when his cover was blown and he was exposed as a loyal member of the Kids Next Door – Rachel still could not find the power within herself to forgive him. It was a personal betrayal on so many levels and it wasn't just because Chad had been a mentor and a friend, it was because of what he represented to the organization in general. He was charismatic and far more of a leader then Numbuh 100 ever had been – his charm and his tactical brilliance was envied even by her and even when he "left" – his tactics were still used by the whole of the organization. Rachel couldn't forgive the fact that he turned his back on all of that and had attempted to send the entire base into the sun and kill all of them, including her. Her sometimes irrational hatred of him was furthered by his bumbled departure from the teenagers. It made it insanely difficult for her and every operative in the Teens Next Door that followed to penetrate the origination and learn their secrets without exposure.

He could have had a graceful exit from the teenagers and saved them so much time and so many exposed operatives if he had just learned to control his temper and ego.

"Chad just finished his term at Ohio State," Mrs. Dickson's eyes folded with pride and Rachel felt a small spark of even more glee at that news.

Many people had told her throughout the years that she was just as good, if not better than Chad, and it felt good that at least in this, she was.

Rachel could practically feel the smugness rolling off of her mother in droves as said woman put a hand on her shoulder, "Our Rachel just finished her term at Harvard, and we're hoping she goes into the graduate program."

If Numbuh Infinity ordered her to stay at Harvard, then she would accept a positon in the graduate degree program, but hopefully, he would have new orders for her that based her back here. If that were the case, then she would tell her parents to fuck off and she would never again have the displeasure of returning to school

"Oh – you're trying to get into graduate school?" Mrs. Dickson's eyebrows rose.

"I have gotten into the graduate school Mrs. Dickson," Rachel suppressed yet another smirk when fury flashed into the older woman's eyes. "I'm still debating on joining or not."

"You'd be stupid not to do it," His voice came from behind her and she instantly felt her back tense. "But then again, no one ever said that you were brilliant."

Turning around slowly, Rachel narrowed her eyes and morphed her mouth into a scowl as she laid her eyes on the form of Chad Dickson for the first time in six years.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

**Rachel's Point of View **

"Look at you, all grown up, legs up to here, drinking champagne," Chad chuckled as he and I walked out onto the balcony, side by side. We were giving our parents the impression that we were old friends, which in a sense was correct. That noun, now at least, was not the correct way to describe our relationship. "I can still remember when you were still a rookie, so eager, so easy to please - remember that Rachel?"

I growled very quietly and tipped my champagne glass back and consumed all of the contents in one, hate filled, swallow. There were some things that I would have liked to have forgotten from those years in the Kids Next Door, and most, if not all, of those things were because of him. I wanted to forget the fact that he taught me everything I knew, and I wanted to forget the indescribable ways he affected me.

That was not going to be easy when I realized the full scope.

Chad was the reason I wanted to become an operative for the Kids Next Door, he was the reason that I joined KND Intelligence and became a spy, and he was also the reason I took a desk job on the Moon Base. What stung most of all was that he was also the reason that I became the leader of the entire organization. I wasn't ready, I hadn't been trained for it, and when I went up there, I didn't expect it.

"I remember," I answered his rhetorical question as I looked down at the lights of the city below. "I _remember_ how you pretended to betray every single oath that you took. I also remember that you didn't even have the _courage_ to tell me! You left me with the check! _You_left me, _on my own_, to put out the fires _you_ started!"

I wasn't even going to look him in the eye, because I knew that if he could, he could make me forget about all of that. Chad had that very unique ability to charm the birds out of the trees, and if I looked into his eyes long enough, he would be able to do it to me too. I didn't want to let go of the hurt, anger, betrayal and sadness that he had left me with it. The fact of the matter was that it kept me going when I felt like giving up, all of the years - it had never, ever failed, ever.

"Would you have preferred things to be different? If you could, would go back in time and make sure that I arranged it so Uno could have replaced me?" His voice had quieted down and had changed tone from his mocking one, but I still was not going to look at him. He did not deserve to be looked upon, the damned coward.

"You had nothing to do with me being selected," I answered his question with a heavy sigh, while simultaneously trying to fight back tears. It was, in retrospect, a stupid thing to cry about. I couldn't help it though, this was the very first time that I had been alone with him since those days, and it was the first time I had been able to confront him about it too. Watershed moments typically ended up like this.

"Please," I heard Chad scoff. "You were made Supreme Leader because I made it happen. Not due to any direct action, but because I knew that I was about to have to go undercover, I needed someone that I knew was capable, someone I trusted."

That drew my eyes back onto him, and I sneered derisively at him, "Trust?"

"Yes, I trust you Rachel, I always have," He nodded, and I would be kidding myself if I didn't think that it looked genuine. "Yes, I might have looked at Uno, but if there was one thing that I knew at the time, it was that Nigel Uno was better served in his sector. You were more qualified to lead the organization as a whole."

I felt anger rise within me, and in my anger, I grabbed my champagne glass and threw it off of the balcony. Ignoring his look, I put my hands on my hips in an effort to keep them from slapping him, "If you trusted me, why didn't you tell me?!"

"I couldn't tell anyone," Chad answered - his eyes glistening.

"You could have told me! I knew about the program! I knew that it existed, I didn't know who the operatives were directly, but I knew that it was there," I advanced on him and I derived a great deal of satisfaction when he began to back up. "I trusted you! There were two people in the Kids Next Door that I trusted with my life, one of them isn't here right now, and the other is, or should I say _was_, you."

Chad's blonde hair shifted slightly in the wind as we approached the south end of the long balcony. That didn't stop me though, that didn't stop my anger from rising with every syllable and it certainly didn't stop me from poking him in the chest as I kept letting it all out. Years, and years, and years of anger was pouring out of me.

"And I could have forgotten all of the other bullshit, all of it – if you had just told me, if you had just demonstrated that I meant more to you than just being a pawn in your game." I stopped when he stopped, evidently blocked by the balcony railing itself – and I made it a point to get into his face. "That's why I find it so ironic that you want to talk about trust, and that is why I despise the ground you walk on!"

I stepped back from him slightly, ignoring his alarmed, and distinctly hurt expression, and forced myself back into the mold. The mold that my parents had been trying to cram me into since I was born, the mold that Chad had crammed me into when he proved that I was nothing him, a very cool, calm and collected leader.

"Now, you obviously didn't come back here to catch up, because even you are not stupid enough to think that I would have been nice to you, after all that you and I have been through," I narrowed my eyes at him and folded my arms over my chest. "Why are you here? Do I have new orders? Or are you here to annoy me?"

"Rach, I…" Chad began and I felt my indignation rise again.

"Don't you dare call me that, you lost that privilege when you decided to try and hurl the Moon Base into the sun upon your retirement, with me in it no less," I held up a finger to him, trying to ignore the fact that I was more annoyed with that last part than the other. The fact that he had tried to kill me was unforgivable, always.

"That was Cree that did that! I tr-…" Chad raised his voice in protest.

"I don't give a damn if it was Santa Claus," I sharply replied, putting my hands back onto my hips. "Now, say what it is you had to say and get the fuck out!"

I had suffered his presence long enough, and the more that I was subjected to his repulsive personality, the more I would lose control. I needed him to get out of here, I was barely hanging on with being back home and being around my overbearing parents. I wasn't going to let him make me loose it in front of them.

"You've been recalled," Chad blinked suddenly and reached down into the interior pocket of his blazer. When his hand came up, he had a flash drive in his hand, and with great reluctance, I took it. "Command is calling all of us back to our home sectors, they've received some intelligence and they want all of us in position."

This program that Chad and I were operatives of, was something that was one of the deepest secrets of the Kids Next Door. They only active member of the Kids Next Door that knew our existence was the Supreme Leader, all other operatives, if the knew who we were, believed that we were decommissioned. Even the operatives of the organization, such as myself and Chad, had very little knowledge of her fellow operatives. I only knew that three other people in the organization.

One of them was Chad, the other was Numbuh 100 –and the third was Numbuh 9.

Taking it, I looked closely and saw the seal of the Supreme Leader imprinted onto the flash drive and scowled. When command wanted to contact us, they usually made a drop in a predesignated drop site, and only than would we have our orders.

"Why am I getting this from you?" I looked back up to Chad's handsome face. "And furthermore, why do you know where my drop-site is and I don't know yours?"

"That would be telling toots, and you know I like my secrets. _Why_ I gave this to you?I was on my way home, so I thought I would do you a little favor," He grinned and placed both of his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "Maurice is on his way back as well, Max is heading home to Dallas – something big is coming Rachel."

I groaned and shook my head in defeat, "They're going to kill me."

"Who?" Chad replied.

"My parents," I answered – I suppose that I was so upset that I was willing to forget that this was Chad I was speaking to. "The only reason I even went to college was because that's where command wanted me there. Daddy will be so disappointed with me, and he'll give me that goddamned look – and Mother, she'll nag me about it until I'm her age. They're both expecting me to go back there."

"Since when did you ever do what adults wanted you to do?" Chad replied wryly.

I shot him a withering glare, "Has it ever occurred to you that we're adults?"

"In age maybe," Chad sighed wearily, but nodded all of the same. "However, age doesn't mean that you have to grow up, it doesn't mean that you have to stop being a kid. I always said I'd give my life for the Kids Next Door, and I meant it."

He was right.

And I was aware of that oath that he took.

I took it as well, in part because of the fact that Chad had done it too.

"Aren't your parents really rich?" His seemingly off-topic question annoyed me.

I nodded in irritation, "Your point?"

"Don't you have a trust fund?" Chad narrowed his eyes – and my own eyes slowly began to wide as what he was alluding to occurred to me. "Tap into your trust fund, buy yourself a nice little house on the outskirts of town, take the phone off of the hook and don't talk to your parents. You gave your loyalty to the Kids Next Door for life when you joined our organization, do not forget your priorities to us, _Rach_."

Looking away from him, I nodded faintly.

Most KND Operatives gave their oaths up when they were decommissioned, but we didn't have that luxury. We signed up to join a team that would fight under the Kids Next Door banner for life – and all other priorities were put aside for that team.

"Go home, read the briefing on the flash drive, and stand by for your orders," Chad whispered into my ear as he pushed himself off of the railing of the railing and adjusted his suit. "I'll be in touch with you, it'll be so nice to work together again."

I turned and frowned at him, "What if I need to contact you?"

"I'm staying with my parents for the moment," Chad chuckled and flashed me a blinding smile. "And I know that you know where to find them, just go there. Don't worry about them attacking you, they're retired and far too old to give a damn."

I watched, slightly mesmerized, as Chad adjusted his tie, took a deep breath in and strolled back into the ballroom.

* * *

><p>It was vague.<p>

I did not like vague.

The Kids Next Door Intergalactic Monitoring Stations had picked up something very strange coming from space. Experts were unsure of what was going on, but they hypothesized that it was weapons fire, and because of that, they had advised the Supreme Leader to put all operatives, in all sectors, on alert. Anything big enough, and close enough, for _us_ to detect on the moon was something that was alarming.

Evidently, when the Supreme Leader had placed all operatives on alert, he had done the same thing with the Teens Next Door and us. His classified brief to all of us indicated that all of the adult operatives were now moving back to their home sectors. I didn't know how it was affecting lives, other than my own, but I could guess – I was only glad that I did not have strong dies that would be hard to cut.

Considering that this organization was put in place before the rise of the phenomenon of the non-decommissioned teenager joining forces with adults, it was safe to assume that much older people were in it too. How old? I couldn't say, but I knew that if this order was going out to all adult operatives, than they would obey.

Our first loyalty was to the Kids Next Door, and when they ordered us to move.

We moved.

It was a simple as that.

There would eventually come a day where I could have a husband and children of my own, and even then, I would obey the orders of command.

* * *

><p><strong>Chad's Point of View <strong>

Rachel would be every part of the consummate professional that she always was.

That was why I had always placed my faith in her, because she was the best and if there was anyone that I could trust, it would be her. The orders from The Supreme Commander were nothing too drastic, only to move back to our home sectors, hold position and wait. That would be simple enough for the former spymaster to obey.

"Do you trust her?" Numbuh Infinity questioned me.

Standing out on the back porch of my parents house, I nodded slightly, "I do trust her, she'll play her part well, and when the time comes, she'll be there with us."

"Will Numbuh One trust her as well?" Infinity was far too paranoid, but I suppose that he had to be in his line of work and in his position as liaison for the others.

I scoffed at the man and turned back to observe the clear night sky, "If there is anything that I expect from Nigel Uno, it is complete and total loyalty to his beloved Supreme Leader. The problem is he'll have to deal with me, he will not trust me."

Deep down, I knew that Nigel would obey the two of us – he may have trusted Rachel implicitly and hated my guts, but he knew the truth. He knew that both Rachel and I only had the best interests in mind when it came to the Kids Next Door, and if we gave him an order, he would follow it. The only thing that Infinity should have been worried about was the friction that Uno would have with me.

"He will do what is expected of him," Infinity rebuked.

I shrugged slightly, I did not expect much, "Whatever you say."

"Have faith Numbuh 274, we will triumph over the coming danger," Infinity's voice seemed airy, and despite the fact that he had not even bothered to try and tell me what this danger was, I couldn't help but agree with him. "We will if you work well."

When did I never work well?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **

The McKenzie Family was the richest family in the whole of Ohio, the sixteenth richest family in the United States and one of the richest in the entire world. They lorded over Cleveland as if it were their own personal fiefdom and no one stopped them. The only way their power could be broken was if they lost their money, and that was not likely to happen soon. Robert _"Bob"_ McKenzie made his fortune in the late 1990, at the height of the dot com bubble, designing and monetizing several websites, all of which had now been absorbed by larger entities. Luckily, he had the sense to get out before the bubble burst – and 15 years later, he had an enormous fortune of $15 billion, and it grew from year to year, due to lucrative investments.

Cecilia McKenzie was no stranger to money either – being the sole heir to her oil baron father's billions. Unlike most marriages that came with money, Bob and Cici McKenzie loved each other – and though she irritated them sometimes, they loved their daughter with all of their heart too. Rachel was indeed their little princess, the heir to the their many billions – they gave her want she wanted, unconditionally. It was only through luck that she'd turned out to be as humble as she was. Rachel took it as a point of personal pride that she had turned out like that in the world she was born into. In another lifetime, she could have been everything she hated.

As such, she was afforded all of the privacy and luxury that money could buy.

No one, absolutely no one interrupted her sleep, not the domestic staff that she had been raised with, and certainly not her parents. She became every part of what they world expected her to be when someone roused her from sleep – a complete and total raging bitch. With that in mind, it came to Rachel's complete surprise when someone tried to do that – that squeaky floorboard before her door gave them away very easily. As she lay there, drifting in and out and unconsciousness, the constant squeak of that floorboard drove her right into fully fledged awareness.

It also drove her to the M.U.S.K.E.T. that she kept underneath her pillow.

She did not survive this long, fight so many battles and successfully lead and run the Kids Next Door without being cautious. Some would call her paranoid, and possibly arrogant. Who would want to target the former leader of the Kids Next Door after all? But Rachel preferred had preferred it this way, safe and secure.

Aiming her favorite weapon at the door, Rachel scowled.

Whoever was behind the door had guts, she would give them that, there were not many people who would even attempt to do so.

Just as she was about to crawl out of bed and confront them directly, the door opened, and the shock of blonde hair did nothing to help her irritation. The only thing that Chad Dickson was a threat to was her nerves – and that was something that she could tolerate, albeit reluctantly. It wasn't something that she'd shoot, but if Chad thought that she was going to tolerate him breaking into her bedroom, he was sadly mistaken. This was her most private sanctuary and he was violating it.

Lowering her weapon slowly, Rachel frowned him.

"Numbuh 274," She growled irritably and tossed the weapon onto my bedside table, before pulling myself out of my bed and marching over to him. "What an unexpected pleasure. As you can see, I'm not ready to see you, let me show you to the door? Perhaps the window? Whatever exit you're most comfortable leaving by."

It was only then that she noticed that Chad wasn't looking at her face, he was, in fact, looking down at her legs. Scowling in confusion and wondering what would possibly be so interesting to him, she looked down and blushed. She had been so exhausted after the party that she had just threw her dress over the chair and collapsed onto the bed. As a result, she was now she was facing Chad in a very nice pair of red lace underwear. Her face, consequently, was a shade redder than them.

"Lace? _Red _lace?" Chad's eyes grew enormously. "Very interesting."

Her fury only grew as Chad's head move slightly and his eyes circled around to land distinctly on her backside, "Very impressive, I didn't know you had it in you, Rach."

Rachel wanted to slap the living daylights out of him.

"Other than to ogle me, why did you break into my house?" Rachel glared at him.

"I didn't break in," Chad shook his head and then turned on his heels to go towards my closet. "A very nice maid showed me to your mother, and she let me come up."

Why did Rachel assume that her mother was attempting to send her a message?

Watching in complete surprise as Chad opened her closet doors, Rachel should have realized that this was Numbuh 274 she was thinking about. Without missing a beat, Chad's fingers found the activating switch in the side of the doorframe, and when he stepped back, the very walls of the closet began to rotate. Little did her parents know, a crew of Kids Next Door engineers had come into her bedroom years ago and transformed the entire wall of her bedroom. She now had a direct uplink to the computer systems of KND Global Command, as well as a personal weapons armory.

Since then, every leader of the Kids Next Door had one.

But Chad had come before her and she was the one to set the precedent.

"How did you-...?" Rachel babbled slightly and blinked at Chad in confusion.

Chad grinned and ran a few fingers through his hair, "I keep tabs on everyone that I deem important enough to do so, that includes you. That, and I have one too, and very eerily in the same place too - it was more of a lucky guess than anything."

"You have one of these?" The former leader in her couldn't help but jump slightly.

She kept forgetting that the Kids Next Door was Chad's baby and, undercover or not, he would want to keep track of it from the inside. If he had an authorized uplink to Global Command from his very bedroom, that would never have been able to track it. He would have been able to spy on them with very, very little effort.

"You realize of course that if you had genuinely turned, you could have destroyed the leadership of the Kids Next Door with a single button," From his room, he could have detached the Moonbase, or activated it's self destruct sequence. "Do you?"

"If I had turned," Chad nodded, but his eyes did not meet mine. "Same question."

Could she have done the same thing? Of course she could have, she had been the Supreme Leader, she was powerful, just as powerful as Chad, and smarter than him too. There was no reason not to suggest that she could have down all of that.

But he was right, she hadn't - and neither had he, so it didn't matter.

"I cannot believe that you kept it," Rachel heard Chad whisper as he walked closer to the now exposed armory. The former Supreme Leader, watched her fellow former Supreme Leader, as he eyed her precious yellow jacket on it's mannequin.

"You can't?" She answered back, her voice was calm, her voice was low.

That damned jumper was something that she carried with her for all of her days in the Kids Next Door after Chad's betrayal. She either had it directly in her possession or wore it every single day from her promotion, towards her "retirement" and when she retired, she sealed in that case. She had worn almost religious determination for a few reasons - one of them was standing in her room.

The jumper had originally belonged to him, a long time ago.

"It's so small, I can't believe this used to fit me," The expression on Chad's face seemed to be genuine amusement and warmth as he observed the old sweater.

Chad had given it to her on her first day of basic training at the Arctic Base.

She could remember being so flattered, and feeling so special that the legendary Numbuh 274 had even spared her a second glance. It was a treasured item for years afterwards and even when Chad defected, it was something that held a great deal of importance in her life. She wore, all of those years afterwards, as something of a reminder. A reminder of things when they were better, when life was golden.

When she had him.

"Why are you here Chad?" She asked him quietly.

The fight was taken out of her when she saw that sweater and it was no feint.

"Did you review the commands on the flash drive?" Chad stepped away from the case and turned to her – the cockiness and lecherousness gone from his voice as well. Rachel would very much liked to have thought that the jumper had done that.

She nodded and folded her arms over her chest, "I did."

Chad's eyebrows rose, "And?"

Rachel tried to ignore the fact that Chad was attempting to debrief her in her bedroom, on a Sunday morning, with her standing in only her underwear, "And I find the reports vague, I don't see why Global Command would place us on stand by for something that isn't our problem. If aliens are fighting, what's it to us?"

"You asked the right question," Chad smiled slightly. "Are you ready to know?"

"I was the Supreme Leader, I know everything about the KND," Rachel glowered.

Chad gave her that look that he used to give her, back in the old days, back when she would have the gall to question his sacred commandments. That was what had literally separated her from the rest of the Kids Next Door, she seemed to be the only one that had been willing to question him, even in Basic Training. Perhaps that was why he had brought her up to the Moonbase after such a long time as a spy.

"You don't know this, no other Supreme Leader does," Chad put his hands on his hips and scowled at her. "First things first though, do you have a S.C.A.M.P.E.R.?"

"Why would I?" Rachel blithely ignoring his questioning.

He pressed forward with his look and Rachel sighed irritably – before pointing to the exposed armory and to one of the key rings in the upper left hand corner. Contrary to policy for general Kids Next Door operatives, sworn members of the TND were allowed to keep their equipment. Her parent's massive estate had given her the unique ability to hold a plethora of KND 2x4 technology – including several ships.

"Third key from the right, it has the rabbit foot on it," Rachel looked down in defeat.

"And where is it?" Chad followed up again as he went towards the key chain.

"Back in bunker in the forrest behind the pool," Rachel made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "Just go back past the pool, and press the red button on the pad."

"Understood," Chad replied as he grabbed the keys off of the hook and departed back towards the bedroom door. "And Rachel, if you don't mind me saying…"

"That's usually not the case," She shook her head.

"You have a really nice ass," Chad remarked.

And before she could even try to slap him – he was gone.


End file.
